Animal as the common Notion concerning God doth suggest you do not destroy that Conception by giving any other Attribute to him which may be either inconsistent with or repugnant to those of his Beatitude and Immortality VI. Gods in truth there are for the Knowledge of them is evident as we have elsewhere declared but they are not such as men commonly conceive and describe them to be For when they have described them to be Immormortall and Blissfull they contradict themselves by affixing other Repugnant Attributes upon them as that they are alwaies taken up with businesse themselves and create business for others that they are affected with pleasure or displeasure at the good or bad Actions of men that they are delighted with human adoration and sacrifices c. all which presuppose great Disquiet Imbecillity Fear and the want of externall assistance VII Nor need you fear that this Tenent should subject you to the censure of being Impious because in truth He is not Impious who denies and casheirs the Vulgar Gods of the multitude but he who ascribes to the Gods the opions of the multitude For those are not Genuine Praenotions but False Opinions which are commonly delivered by men concerning the Gods VIII By the same reason likewise he is not the truly Pious man who bows down upon every stone sacrificeth upon every Altar and besprinkles the doors of every Temple with the blood of victims but He who contemplating all things with a serene and quiet mind frames to himself out of a genuine Praenotions true and correspondent conceptions concerning the Divine Nature and being thereunto induced not by hope or reward but meerly by apprehension of the Majesty and Supreme Excellency of its essence doth love it and worship it with the highest Reverence and Veneration of his mind and admitting no such Cogitations as may suggest any Opinion repugnant to its Attributes and destructive to the Veneration due unto it doth thereby exempt himself from that base fear which others suffer in whose minds that Contrariety of Attributes doth beget the highest and most lasting of all Perturbations CHAP. XXII Of Fortitude opposed to the Fear of Death THE other thing which invades and strikes the Minds of men with extream Fear and Terror is Death and this because of we know not what Everlasting Evills that are expected immediately to ensue thereupon and that 's very strange you 'l say that men should fear to suffer Evill then when they shall be deprived of all sense and utterly cease to be they being ignorant that all those solemn stories that are commonly told of Hell Rhadamanth the Furies c. are the meer Fictions of Poets and that if they contain any thing of truth in them they are but cunning allusions to the miseries which many men suffer during life since those who are uncessantly vexed with vain Fears superfluous Cares insatiable Desires and other violent Passions lead lives so truly miserable as that they may well be said to suffer the torments of Hell II. That you may exempt your self therefore from these Terrors accustom your mind to this thought That Death doth nothing concern us and upon this Argument whatever of Good or Evill we are capable of in life we are capapable thereof onely in respect of our Sense but Death is a Privation of all Sense therefore c. That Death is a Privation of all Sense is consequent from hence that it is a Dissolution and what is once dissolved must henceforth remain without all Sense So that Death seems a thing most easily Contemptible insomuch as it is an ineffectuall Agent and in vain threatens pain where the Patient is destroyed and so ceaseth to be capable of pain III. True it is indeed and too true that men generally abhor Death somtimes because they look upon it as the Greatest of Pains somtimes because they apprehend it as the Cessation of all their Enjoyments or Privation of all things that are Dear to them in life but in both these Respects altogether without Cause since this thing Not-to-live or Not-to-be ought to be no occasion of Terror because when once we come to that we shall have no faculty left whereby to know that Not-to-live hath any thing of Evill in it IV. Hereupon we may conclude that those are great Fooles who abhorre to think that after Death their Bodies should be torne by wild beasts burned in the flame of the funerall pile devoured by wormes c. for they doe not consider that then they shall not be and so not feele nor complaine that they are torne burned devoured by corruption or wormes And that those are Greater Fooles who take it grievously that they shall no longer enjoy the conversation of their Wives Children Friends no longer doe them good offices nor afford them their assistance for these doe not consider that then they shall have no longer Relation to nor Desire of Wife Children Friends or any thing else V. We said that Death accounted the King of Terrors and most horrid of all Evills doth nothing concerne us because while we are Death is not and when Death is we are not so that he who profoundly considers the matter will soone conclude that Death doth concerne neithe Living nor the Dead not the living because it yet toucheth them not not the Dead because they are not VI. And as the assurance of this that Death nothing concernes us doth exempt us from the greatest of Terrors so also doth it make us to enjoy life to the most advantage of pleasure not by adding thereunto any thing of uncertaine Time but by Detracting all desire of Immortality For in life there can be nothing of Evil to him who doth perfectly understand that there can be nothing of Evill in the privation of life VII Againe He cannot be excused of Folly who saith that He feares Death not because of any Trouble or Anguish that it can bring when it comes but because of the perpetuall Griefe and Horror wherewith it afflicts the minde till it comes or while it is expected forasmuch as that which can bring no trouble or anguish with it when it comes ought not to make us sad before it comes Certainely if therebe any thing of Incommodity or Feare in the businesse of Death it is the fault of him that is Dying not of Death it selfe nor is there any trouble in Death more than there is after it and it is no lesse folly to feare Death than to feare old Age since as old Age followes close upon the heeles of youth so doth Death upon the heeles of old Age. VIII Further we are to hope at least that when we come to the point of Death and are even at the last gaspe either we shall feele no pain or such as will be very short for as much as no pain that is Great can be Long and so every man ought to be confident that though the dissolution of his Soul and Body be accompanied
with some torment yet after that 's once past he shall never feel more IX That Philosopher was very ridiculous who admonisheth the young man to live Honestly and the old bodie Honestly because a Good Life and a Good Death are not things to be parted and the Meditation of living honestly and dying honestly is one and the same and this in respect that a young man may die Immaturely and to an old man something of life is remaining and the last act of his life is a part yea and the Crown of his whole life X. And both young and old are to consider this that though man may provide for his Security as to other things yet against Death there is no security the youngest nor strongest cannot promise themselves immunity from it for so much as one hour all men living as it were in a City without Walls without Gates to keep out that common Enemy XI Moreover a young man may die Happy who considers with himself that should he live a thousand years yet he could but see and act over the same things again and an old man may live Unhappy who like a vessell full of holes receives the Goods of life only to let them run through him and so is never full of them nor as a sober Guest of Nature after a plentifull meal of all her best dishes willing to rise and go take his rest XII This considered we are not to account an old man Happy in that he died full of years but in that he dyed full of Goods and sated with the World XIII Finally most of all foolish and ridiculous is he who saith it is good either not to be born at all or to die as soon as born For if he speak this in Earnest why doth he not presently rid himself of life it being very easie for him so to do in case he hath well deliberated upon the matter beforehand And if in jest he is perfectly mad because these are things that admit not of jesting Again in life there is somthing Amiable in it self and therefore he is as much to be reprehended who desires Death as he that is afraid of it For what can be so ridiculous as for a man to desire Death when himself makes his life unquiet by the fear of Death or out of a wearinesse of life to fly to the Sanctuary of Death when his own Imprudence and Irregular course of life is the only cause of that wearinesse XIV Every man therefore ought to make it his care so to live as that life may not be ingrate or taedious to him not to be willing to part with life till either Nature or some intolerable Case call upon him to surrender it And in that respect we are seriously to perpend whether is the more Commodious for us to stay till death come to us or to go and meet it For though it be an Evill indeed to live in Necessity yet is there no Necessity for us to live in Necessity since Nature hath been so Kind as to give us though but one door into the World yet many doors out of it XV. But albeit therebe some Cases so extream as that in respect of them we are to hasten and fly to the Sanctuary of Death lest some power intervene and rob us of that liberty of quitting life yet neverthelesse are we not to attempt any thing in that kind but when it may be attempted conveniently and opportunely and when that time comes then are we to dispatch and leap over the battlements of life bravely For neither is it fit for him who thinks of flight to sleep nor are we to despair of a happy Exit even from the greatest Difficulties in case we neither hasten before our time nor let it slip whâ—n it comes CHAP. XXIII Of Fortitude against Pain of the Body COrporall Pain is that alone which deserves the name of Evill in it self and which indeed would carry the Reason of the Greatest of Evills if so be our own delusive Opinions had not created and pulled upon our heads another sort of pain called the pain of the Mind which many times becoms more grievous and intollerable than any pain of the Body whatever as we have formerly deduced For Discontent of mind conceived upon the losse of Riches Honours Friends Wife Children and the like doth frequently grow to that height that it exceeds the sharpest pains of the body but still that which gives it both being and growth is our own Opinion which if right and sound we should never be moved by any such Losse whatever in regard that all such things are without the circle of our selves and so cannot touch us but by the intervention of Opinion which we coin to our selves And thereupon we may infer that we are not subject to any other reall Evill but only the Pain of the Body and that the mind ought to complain of nothing which is not conjoyned to some pain of the body either present or to come II. The Wise man therefore will be very cautious that he do not wittingly draw upon himself any Corporall pain nor do any action whereupon any such pain may be likely to ensue unlesse it be in order either to the Avoydance of some Greater pain that would otherwise certainly invade him or the Comparation of some Greater Pleasure dependent thereupon as we have formerly inculcated This considered we may very well wonder at Those Philosophers who accounting Health which is a state of Indolency a very great Good as to all other respects do yet as to this respect hold it to be a thing meerly Indifferent as if it were not an indecent playing with words or rather a high piece of Folly to affirm that to be in pain and to be free from pain is one and the same thing III. But in case any Necessity either of his native Constitution in respect whereof his body is infirm and obnoxious to Diseases or of any Externall violence done him which so subject to Casualties and the injuries of others is the condition of frail man he could not prevent or avoid for experience attesteth that a Wise and Innocent person may be wounded by his malicious Enemies or called to the bar impleaded condemned and beaten with rodds or otherwise cruelly tormented by Tyrants we say in case either of these shall have brought pain upon him then is it his part to endure that pain with Constancy and Bravery of mind and patiently to expect either the Solution or Relaxation of it IV. For certainly Pain doth never continue long in the Body but if it be Great and highly intense it ceaseth in a short time because either it is determined of its self and suceeded if not by absolute Indolency yet by very great Mitigation or is determined by Death in which there can be no pain And as for that pain which is Lasting it is not only gentle and remisse in it self but also admits many lucid intervalls so that
worship the Divine Majesty solely and simply upon the former motive they say that he bears a Filiall respect and affection to God and if only by the latter a meer servile or mercenary Now though the servile or mercenary love of God be not altogether to be disliked in regard it is a kind of gratitude due to him as a Benefactor yet I conceive no man will gainsay but the filiall and free love is much the nobler and more acceptable insomuch as it hath no other then the noblest of Objects God Himselfe And sure I am however that the most Learned most Pious and most Religious of our School Divines have been earnest in their advisoes to us to extract all selfenesse from our love of God and as much as our frailties will admit of to fix all our affections entirely upon Him as he is infinitely Good and Amiable in Himselfe Moreover you may remember Sir that Cicero in his Book touching the nature of the Gods hath these very words Quid est cur Deos ab hominibus colendos dicas cum dii ipsi non modo homines non colant sed omnino nihil curent Et quae porrò Pietas ei debetur à quo nihil acceperis Aut quid omnino cujus nullum meritum fit ei deberi potest By which it is evident that he would exclude all other inducements to Religion besides a meer mercenary and servile respect And yet I dare say that you do not remember that ever you heard him accounted Impious for that opinion Why therefore should EPICVRVS have such hard measure as to be stigmatiz'd with the name of Atheist Impious wretch Secretary of Hell Enemy to all Religion c and all for asserting that man ought to be induc'd to a reverence and veneration of the Divine Majesty only by the Sentiments of a Filiall Piety not supernaturall Piety arising from Grace justifying and by which we are made the Sons of God but a pure Naturall one such as Right Reason had suggested unto him Certainly of the two opinions Epicurus's will appear much more veniall to an Equitable Arbiter Sundry other arguments there are which might be advantagiously-alledged on our Authors behalfe in this case But considering that these few already urged are of importance enough to evince the temerity of his Accusers judgment and that the prolixity of this discourse hath long since given you just occasion to question by what right I call it a Letter I perceive my selfe obliged in good manners no longer to exercise your patience then while I briefly expresse my sentiments of the LAST Article of his Charge Which is His asserting of Selfe-Homicide in case of intolerable and otherwise inevitable Calamity This as a Christian I hold to be a bloody and detestable opinion because expresly repugnant to the Law of God and yet in the person of a meer Philosopher I might without being unreasonably Paradoxicall adventure to dispute whether it be so highly repugnant to the Law of Nature as men have generally conceived For First if all the praecepts of the Law of Nature concenter in this one point Flie Evill pursue Good as those who have most labour'd to conduct our understanding out of that intricate Labyrinth the ambiguous Sence of the word Law of Nature have unanimously determined certainly that man assumes no very easie task who undertakes to prove that in case of insupportable distresse and where all other hopes of evading or ending that misery then which there can be no greater Evill for a man to free himselfe from that extremity of Evill and seek the Good of ease and quiet by taking away his own life which chiefly makes him subject to and only sensible of that misery is an infringment of the Law of Nature Again if we understand Selfe-praeservation which all men allow to be the foundation of Naturall Law in Generall to be no other but an innate Love or Naturall affection to Life as a Good when life ceaseth to be a Good degenerates into an Evill as commonly it doth to men in cruell torments of the body or high discontent of minde the more desperate affliction of the two by much when all the Stars of hope and comfort are set in the West of black desperation why should not the force or obligation of that Law also cease at the same time Or rather why should not self-homicid in such cases be an absolute accomplishment of the Law of Self-praeservation it being manifest that we are by the tenour of that Law obliged to use such means as conduce to our praeservation from the greatest Evill and as manifest that to free ones-selfe from misery which cannot otherwise be avoided but by breaking as under the Ligaments of Life is a pursuance of the only means we can discover to beconducible to our end that is to preservation from more sufferings and to Indolency which in Death we propose to our selves as a Good But lest we seem to give any encouragement to that which God the Church and the Civill Power so highly condemn let us grant that Selfe-murther in whatsoever case is a violation of the Law of Nature and yet we shall have one consideration left that seemes strong enought to refract the violence of their malice who exclaim against EPICVRVS as the grand abettor of selfe-assasination and that is that he was not single nor most vehement in the justification of it For if we look upon the Doctrine of other Philosophers we shall soon perceive that the Stoicks generally not only approved thereof but strictly enjoyned men to embrace death voluntarily and from their own hands That Cicero doth Lib. de Legibus implicitely allow of it in these words Eum damnandum esse censeo qui seipsum interficit si neque ex decreto Civitatis fecerit neque ullo Fortunae casu intolerabili inevitabilique coactus neque obrutus ullâ pauperis miseraeque vitae ignominiâ and expresly confirms it in 2 Tusculan in these Eam in vita servandam Legem quae in Graecorum conviviis obtinet Aut bibat aut abeat quoniam ut oportet aliquis fruatur pariter cum aliis voluptate potandi aut ne sobrius in violentiam vinolentorum incidat ante discedat sic injurias Fortunae quas ferre nequeas defugiendo relinquas And if their Practise we shall assoon finde many of them to have laid violent hands upon themselves and that in cases offar lesse moment then that of insupportable and inevitable Calamity to which only Epicurus's praecept is limited while He leaving others to become examples of that Rule with admirable patience and invincible magnanimity endured the tortures of the Stone in the Bladder and other most excruciating Diseases for mamy years together and awaited till extream old age gently put out the Taper of his life Thus Zeno a man of the most spotlesse fame of any Philosopher among the antients having by a fall bruised one of his fingers against the ground and interpreting that
to be a summons of him to the earth went presently home and hang'd himselfe and was therefore by Diogenes Laertius honour'd with this Elogie Mirâ felicitate vir qui incolumis integer sine morbo è vivis excessit Thus Demosthenes you know to prevent his being beholding to any man but himselfe either for his life or death drank mortall poison out of his own quill which had given him immortality long before Thus also Democles to praevent his pollution by the unnaturall heat of a certain lustfull Greek Tyrant who attempted to force him leaped into a Furnace of boyling Water And thus Cleanthes Chrysippus and Empedocles all brake open the gates of death and forc'd themselves into the other world To these you may please to add the memorable Examples of that Prince of Romane wisdome as Lactanrius calls him Cato who with his own hands and sword opened a flood-gate in his bowells to let his life flow forth having all the night before prepar'd himselfe to fall boldly with the Lecture of Plato's discourse of the Immortality of the Soul and of the famous Cleombrotus who upon no other incitement but Plato's reasons in the same discourse threw himselfe from a precipice as if he went instantly to experiment the truth of what he had newly read and though Aristotle would not admit that he did it upon any other account but that of Pusillanimity and Fear yet Saint Augustine De Civit. Dei Lib. 1. cap. 22. ascribes it altogether unto Greatnesse of minde his words being these When no Calamity urged him no Crime either true or imputed nothing but greatnesse of minde moved him to embrace death and dissolve the sweet bonds of life And Lactantius who was severe enough in his censure both of the Act and the Book that occasion'd it sayes of him Praecipitem se dedit nullam aliam ob causam nisi quod Platoni credidit SIR By this time you are satisfied both of the injuries done to the memory of the Temperate Good and Pious EPICVRVS and of my willingnesse and devoir to redresse them And my dull and unequall Apologie for him being now ended I should begin another for my selfe in that I have rather disturbed then either delighted or informed you But this being much the greater difficulty of the two I think it safer for me to put my selfe upon your mercy for an absolute forgivenesse then to trust to my own wit to make excuses for my failings herein especially since your patience cannot but be already overcome by the Tediousnesse of Your very Humble Servant W. CHARLETON The Contents Chap. 1. INtroduction Fol. 1. Chap. 2. Of Felicity or the Supream Good so far forth as Man is capable thereof Fol. 7. Chap. 3. That pleasure without which there can be no Notion of Felicity is a reall Good in it selfe Fol. 12. Chap. 4. That Felicity doth consist generally in Pleasure Fol. 17. Chap. 5. That the Pleasure wherein Felicity doth consist is the Indolency of the Body and Tranquillity of the Minde Fol. 22. Chap. 6. Of the Means to attain this Felicity Fol. 29. Chap. 7. Of Right Reason and Free Will from whence all the Praise of the Vertues is derived Fol. 33. Chap. 8. Of the Vertues in Generall Fol. 38. Chap. 9. Of Prudence Generall Fol. 44. Chap. 10. Of Prudence Private Fol. 48. Chap. 11. Of Prudence Domestick Fol. 55. Chap. 12. Of Prudence Civill Fol. 60. Chap. 13. Of Temperance in Generall Fol. 66. Chap. 14. Of Sobriety opposed to Gluttony Fol. 71. Chap. 15. Of Continence opposed to Lust. Fol. 79. Chap. 16. Of Lenity opposed to Anger Fol. 86. Chap. 17. Of Modesty opposed to Ambition Fol. 92. Chap. 18. Of Moderation opposed to Avarice Fol. 97. Chap. 19. Of Mediocrity betwixt Hope and Despair of the Future Fol. 104. Chap. 20. Of Fortitude in Generall Fol. 109. Chap. 21. Of Fortitude opposed to the Fear of the Gods Fol. 114. Chap. 22. Of Fortitude opposed to the Fear of Death Fol. 118. Chap. 23. Of Fortitude against Pain of the Body Fol. 128. Chap. 24. Of Fortitude against Discontent of Minde Fol. 133. Chap. 25. Of Iustice in Generall Fol. 139. Chap. 26. Of Right or Iust from whence Iustice is denominated Fol. 143. Chap. 27. Of the Originall of Right and Iustice Fol. 149. Chap. 28. Between whom Iustice is to be exercised Fol. 159. Chap. 29. How rightfully Iustice is to be exercised Fol. 167. Chap. 30. Of Beneficence Gratitude Piety Observance Fol. 172. Chap. 31. Of Friendship Fol. 178. EPICURVS in this Treatise discourseth of the 1. Summum Bonum of mans life which is PLEASVRE consisting in the Indolency of the Body Tranquillity of the Mind 2. Means to attain it viz. Honesty which comprehends all the Virtues namely 1. Prudence or the Dictamen of right Reason and that 1. Generall which teacheth to order all ones Actions and desires to the attainement of Pleasure 2. Particular which divides it selfe into 1. Prudence Private which admonisheth us to elect if it be in our own choyce that course of life which is most agreeable to the inclination of our Genius and such as may make our Condition rather Mean then either High or Lowe 2. Prudence Domestick which concernes a man as a Husband Father Master of Servants Possessor of Goods estate 3. Prudence Civill which concerns a man as he is the Member of a Society which adviseth to Affect privacy and yet not to decline publick imployments in case the present Necessity of the Cōmon Wealth or the Command of Superiors shall call thereunto 2. Temperance 1. General consisting in the Moderation of all Cupidities 2. Particular which is either 1. Sobriety 2 Continence 3. Lenity 4. Modesty 5. Moderation 6. Mediocrity betwixt Hope and despaire of the Future opposed to Gluttony Lust. Anger Ambition Avarice 3. Fortitude 1. General consisting in the prevention of all Fear 2. Particular against The Fear of the Gods The Feare of Death Paines of the Body Discontent of Mind 4. Iustice whereof there are five branches viz. 1. Beneficence to All. 2. Gratitude to Benefactors Piety towards Parents Kinsfolks Country Governours Observance of All Superiors in 1 Nature as the Gods 2 Power as Princes and Magistrates 3 Learning 4 Uirtue 5 Obligations 5. Frendship which extends to the mutuall Participation not Community of Saints and to Death it self EPICVRVS'S MORALS CHAPTER 1. Introduction IF Action be the end of Speculalation and the knowledge of Nature but the way that leads Man to the knowledge of himself and the best of mans knowledge bee that which teacheth him how to order his Mind and regulate his Actions so as that he may assuredly attain to the highest degree of Happinesse of which his Nature is capable during life then certainly must ETHICKS or MORAL PHILOSOPHY be the noblest part of all Human Learning the Crown and perfection of all our studies insomuch as it is that alone which both gives us the infallible Tokens by which we may know what is
the penitent Delinquent that as he is affected with contrition and horror at the apprehension of the foulnesse of his offence so he may be re-animated by the pulchritude of what he ought to have done formerly or is to do in the future CHAP. XVII Of Modesty opposed to Ambition COncerning this great Virtue which is the Fourth branch of Temperance there is very little need of saying more than what we have formerly intimated when we declared it not to be the part of a Wise man to affect Greatnesse or Power or Honours in a Commonwealth but so to contain himself as rather to live not only privately but even obscurely and concealed in some secure corner And therefore the advise we shall chiefly inculcat in this place shall be the very same we usually give to our best friends Live private and concealed unlesse some circumstance of state call you forth to the assistance of the Publick insomuch as Experience frequently confirms the truth of that proverbiall saying He hath well lived who hath well concealed himself II. Certainly it hath been too familiarly observed that many who had mounted up to the highest pinacle of Honour have been on a suddain and as it were with a Thunder-bolt thrown down to the bottom of Misery and Contempt and so been brought though too late to acknowledge that it is much better for a man quietly and peaceably to obey than by laborious Climbing up the craggy Rocks of Ambition to aspire to Command and Soveraignty and to set his foot rather upon the plain and humble ground than upon that slippery height from which all that can be with reason expected is a praecipitous and ruinous Downfall Besides are not those Grandees upon whom the admiring multitude gaze as upon refulgent Comets and Prodigies of Glory and Honour are they not we say of all men the most unhappy in this one respect that their breasts swarm with most weighty and troublesom Cares that uncessantly gall and corrode their very Hearts Beware therefore how you believe that such live securely and tranquilly since it is impossible but those who are feared by many should themselves be in continuall fear of some III. Though you see them to be in a manner environed with Power to have Navies numerous enough to send abroad into all Seas to be in the heads of mighty and victorious Armies to be guarded with well armed and faithfull Legions yet for all this take heed you do not conceive them to be the only Happy men nay that they partake so much as of one sincere Pleasure for all these things are meer pageantry shadows gilded and ridiculous Dreams insomuch as Fear and Care are not things that are afraid of the noyse of Arms or regard the brightnesse of Gold or the splendor of Purple but boldly intrude themselves even into the Hearts of Princes and Potentates and like the Poets Vultur daily gnaw and consume them IV. Beware likewise that you do not conceive that the Body is made one whit the more strong or healthy by the Glory Greatnesse and Treasures of Monarchy especially when you may dayly observe that a Fever doth as violently and long hold him who lies upon a bed of Tissue under a Covering of Tyrian Scarlet as him that lies upon a Mattress hath no Covering but Raggs and that we have no reason to complain of the want of Scarlet Robes of Golden Embroideries jewells and ropes of Pearl while we have a Course and easie Garment to keep away the Cold. And what if you lying cheerfully and serenely upon a truss of clean straw covered with raggs should gravely instruct men how vain those are who with astonisht and turbulent minds gape and thirst after the Trifles of Magnificence not understanding how few and small those things are which are requisite to an happy life believe me your Discourse would be truly magnificent and High because delivered by one whose own happy Experience confirms it V. What though your House do not shine with silver and gold Hatchments nor your arched roofs resound with the multiplied Echoes of loud Musick nor your walls be not thickly beset with golden Figures of beautifull youths holding great lamps in their extended arms to give light to your nightly Revels and sumptuous Banquets why yet truly it is not awhit lesse if not much more pleasant to repose your wearied limbs upon the Green Grasse to sit by some cleanly and purling stream under the refreshing shade of some well-branched Tree especially in the Spring time when the head of every Plant is crowned with beautifull and fragrant Flowers the merry Birds entertaining you with the musick of their Wild notes the fresh Western Winds continually fanning your heats and all Nature smiling upon you VI. Wherefore when any man may if he please thus live at peace and liberty abroad in the open Fields or his own Gardens what reason is there why he should affect and pursue Honours and not rather modestly bound his Desires with the Calmnesse and security of that Condition For to hunt after Glory by the ostentation of Virtue of Science of Eloquence of Nobility of Wealth of Attendants of rich Cloths of Beauty of Garb and the like seriously it is altogether the Fame of ridiculous Vanity and in all things Modesty exacts no more then this that we do not through Rusticity want of a decent Garb or too much Negligence do any thing that doth not correspond with Civility and Decorum For it is equally vile and doth as much denote a Base or Ahject mind to grow insolent and Lofty upon the possession of these adjuncts of Magnificence as to become Dejected or sink in Spirit at the Losse or want of them VII Now according to this rule if a Wise man chance to have the Statues or Images of his Ancestors or other Renowned Persons of Former Ages he will be very far from being proud of them from shewing them as Badges of Honour from affecting a Glory from the Generosity of their Actions and Atchievements and as far from wholly neglecting them but will place them as Memorialls of Virtue indifferently either in his Porch or Gallery or elsewhere VIII Now wil he be sollicitous about the manner or place of his Sepulture or command his Executors to bestow any great Cost or Pomp and Ceremony at his Funerall The chief subject of his care will be what may be beneficiall and pleasant to his successors being well assured that as for his dead Corps it will little concern him what becoms of it For to propagate Vanity even beyond Death is the highest madnesse and not much inferior thereto is the Fancy of some who in their lives are afraid to have their Carcasses torn by the teeth of Wild Beasts after their death For if that be an Evill why is it not likewise an Evill to have the Dead Corps burned Embalmed and immersed in Honey to grow cold and stiff under a ponderous Marble to be pressed down
by the weight of Earth and passengers CHAP. XVIII Of Moderation opposed to Avarice NOw comes Moderation or that Disposition of the Mind which makes a man contented with a little and than which he can hardly possesse a greater Good For to be content with little is the highest preferment the greatest wealth in the world as on the other side great riches without moderation are but great poverty Thus to have wherewithall to prevent Hunger Thirst and Cold is a Felicity not much inferior to that of Divintiy and who so possesses so much and desires no more however the world may account him poor he really is the Richest man alive II. And how honest a thing is this Poverty when it is Cheerfull serene and Contented with only what is sufficient i. e. with those riches of Nature which suffice to preserve from Hunger from Thirst from Cold Truly seeing that these riches of Nature are Terminated and easily acquirable but those that are coveted out of vain opinions are difficult in the acquisition and have no measure no end we ought to be highly thankfull to the Wisdom and Bounty of Nature which made those things easily procurable that are Necessary and those Unnecessary that are hard to come by III. Again since it behoves a Wise man to be alwaies Confident that in the whole course of his life he shall never want Necessaries doth not the very easie parability of such few small cheap and common things as are Necessary abundantly cherish that Confidence in him when on the other side the Difficulty of acquiring those many great sumptuous and rare things that belong to superfluity and magnificence cannot but very much stagger and weaken it And this clearly is the Reason why the vulgar though they have great possessions do yet uncessantly toyl and afflict themselves in the acquisition of more as if they feared to outlive their riches and come to want what if they used with Moderation they could never live to spend IV. This considered let us endeavour to Content our selves with what is most simple and most easily procurable remembring that not all the wealth of the world congested into one heap can avail in the least measure to cure the least disease or perturbation of the Mind whereas mean Riches such as Nature offers to us and are most usefull to remove thar indigence which is incommodious to the Body as they are the occasion of no Care or other passion during life so will it not be grievous to us to part with them when we think of Death V. Miserable truly are the Minds of men and their Hearts surrounded with blindness in that they will not see that Nature doth dictate nothing more to them than this that they should supply the wants of the Body and for the rest enjoy a wel pleased mind without care without Fear not that they should spend their daies in scraping together more than Nature knows how to make use of and that with greedinesse as if they meant to outlive Death to prevent want in their graves or never bethought themselves of the uncertainty of life and how deadly a Potion we all drink at our very entrance into the World VI. What though those things which are purely Necessary and in respect whereunto no man can be poor do not afford those Delights which Vulgar minds so much love and court yet Nature doth not want them nor doth she in the mean time cease to afford reall and sincere Pleasures in the fruition of meer Necessaries as we abundantly declared Hereupon the Wise man stands not only so indifferently affected toward those things in relation whereunto money is desired such are Love Ambitition Luxury c. all which require expences to maintain them but so far above them as that he hath no reason either to desire or care for money VII Now as for what we said of the Immensity of such Riches as are coveted upon the suggestion of vain Opinions the Reason of it is this that when Nature is satisfied with Little vain Opinion ushering in Desire alwaies engageth the mind to think of somthing which it doth not possesse and as if it were really needfull converts and fixeth the Desire wholly and entirely upon it Whence it comes that to him who is not satisfied with a little nothing can ever be enough but still the more wealth he possesseth the more he conceives himself to want VIII Wherefore seeing there can never be want of a Little the Wise man doubtlesse while he possesseth that little ought to account it very great Riches because therein is no want whereas other riches though great in esteem are really very small because they want multiplication to infinity Whence it follows that he who thinks not his own Estate how small soever sufficiently ample though he should become Lord of the whole World will ever be miserable For Misery is the companion of Want and the same vain opinion which first perswaded him that his own Estate was not sufficient will continue to perswade him that one World is not sufficient but that he wants more and more to infinity IX Have you then a design to make any one Rich indeed Know that the way is not by adding to his Riches but by Detracting from his desires For when having cut off all vain and superfluous desires from his breast he shall so compose himself to the praescripts of Nature as to covet no more than she needs and requires then at length shall he find himself to be a Rich man in reality because he shall then find that Nothing is wanting to him Hereupon may you also inculcate this maxim to him If you live according to Nature you shall never be poor but if according to Opinion you shall nover be rich Nature desires little Opinion infinite X. Truly this Disposition or if you please Faculty of the mind whereby a man moderating himself cuts off the desire of whatsoever is not Necessary to Nature and contents himself with provisions the most simple and most easily procurable this Disposition we say is that which begets that Security that is perceived in a pleasant Retirement and Avoidance of the Multitude forasmuch as by the benefit thereof when a man converseth with crouds of people he shall want no more than when he lives sequestred XI Finally when a man wants this Faculty of Detracting or Abdicating from his Desires whatever is not purely Necessary how great is the Misery to which he is continually subject his mind being like a vessell full of holes alwaies in filling but never full And certainly that we may not insist upon this that most who have heaped up vast masses of Wealth have therein found only a Change not an End of their misery either because they loaded themselves with new Cares to which they were not subject before or because they gave them occasion to fall into new Vices from the snares whereof they had formerly escaped this alone is a very high misery
for a man to have his Appetite Encreased by the satisfaction of it i. e. the more plentifully he feeds the more to be tormented with hunger CHAP. XIX Of Mediocrity betwixt Hope and Despair of the Future FInally since all Cupldity or Desire whatever is carried to that which is not possessed but proposed as possible to be attained and accompanied with some Hope of obtaining it and that Hope as it were nursing and cherishing that Desire is accompanied with a certain pleasure as the opposite to Hope Desperation creating and fomenting Fear that what is desired may not be obtained is accompanied with a certain Trouble upon these considerations it seems necessary for us to bring up the rear of this File of Virtues with the discourse of Mediocrity which is of very great use as well in respect of objects in the Generall either hoped for or despaired of in the Future as in particular of the Duration or rather perpetuity of life whereof as there is a Desire kindled in the breasts of most men so doth the Despair of it torment them II. In the first place therefore we are to adhaere to this as a Generall Rule that what is to come if it be in the number of simple Contingents is neither absolutely ours nor absolutely Not ours More plainly we are neither so to hope for a thing that is Contingent as if it were certainly to come because it may be prevented or diverted by some crosse accident intervenient Nor so to despair of it as if it were certainly not to come because it may fall out that no Accident may intervene to prevent or divert it For by the observation of this maxime we shall reap the benefit of Moderation so as not being destitute of all Hope we shall not be without some Pleasure and being altogether frustrated of our hopes we shall be affected with no trouble III. For herein consists the Difference betwixt the Wise man and the Fool that the Wise doth indeed expect things Future but not depend upon them and in the mean time enjoyes the Goods that are present by considering how great and pleasant they are and gratefully remembers what are past but the fool fixing all his thoughts and dependance upon the Future makes as we said in the beginning his whole life unpleasant and full of fears IV. And how many may we dayly see who neither remember goods past nor enjoy present They are wholly taken up with Expectation of Future things and those being uncertain they are perpetually afflicted with anguish of mind with fear and at length become most grievously perplexed when they too late perceive that they have in vain addicted themselves to the getting of Riches or Honours or Power or Glory in respect they fail of obtaining those Pleasures with the hopes whereof being enflamed they had undergone many and great Difficulties and Labours That we may not say any thing of that other sort of fools who being abject and narrow-hearted despair of all things and are for the most part Malevolent Envious Morose Shunners of the light Evill-speakers Monsters V. Now the Reason why we say that the wise man doth gratefully remember Goods Past is because we are generally too ungrateful toward the time Praeterite and do not call to mind nor account among Pleasures the Good things we have formerly received forasmuch as no Pleasure is more certain than what cannot now be taken from us For present Goods are not yet Consummate and wholly solid some chance or other may intervene and cut them off in half Future things hang upon the pin of uncertainty what is already Past is only safe and inamissible VI. And among Past Goods we account not only such as we have enjoyed but also our Avoidance of all those Evills that might have fallen upon us and our Liberation or Deliverance from such other Evills as did fall upon us and might have lasted much longer as also the Recordation Reputation Gratulation that we sustained them Constantly and Bravely VII As for the Desire of Prolonging life to Eternity the speciall Evill to be prevented by Mediocrity we have already hinted that a Wise man is to entertain no such desire because thereupon instantly succeeds Desperation wich is alwaies accompanied with Trouble and Anguish And this Cogitation imports thus much that the greater Pleasure cannot be received from an Age of infinite Duration than may be received from this which we know to be finite provided a man measure the Ends of it by Right Reason VIII For seeing that to measure the Ends of Pleasure by right reason is only to conceive that the Supreme pleasure is no other but an Exemption from Pain and Perturbation it is a manifest Consequence that the Supreme Pleasure of man cannot be encreased by the Length nor Diminished by the shortnesse of Time IX The Hopes of a more prolonged Pleasure or of a longer Age we confesse may seem to render the present Pleasure more Intense but it can seem so only to such who measure the Ends of Pleasure not by right Reason but by vain opinion and the Consequent thereof Desire and who look upon themselves so as if when they shall cease to be they should be sensible of some trouble from the privation of Pleasure as they might in case they should survive And hence it comes that perfectly to understand that Death doth nothing concern us makes us fully to enjoy this Mortall Life not by adding thereunto any thing of uncertain Time but by Cutting off all Desires of Immortality X. Wherefore since Nature hath prescribed certain bounds or Ends to the Pleasures of the Body and the Desire of Eternall Duration takes them wholly away necessary it is that the mind or Reason supervene so as by ratiocinating upon those ends and expunging all desires of Sempiternity to make life in all points perfect and consummate and us so fully content therewith as not to want any longer Duration XI And this Reasoning moreover causeth that we shall not be frustrated of Pleasure even then when Death shall take us by the hand and shew us the period of all these mortall things insomuch as we shal therby attain to the perfect and so delectable End of a very Good Life rising from the table of the World as Guests well satisfied with the Good Entertainments of life and having duly performed all those Duties which to perform we received life CHAP. XX. Of Fortitude in Generall HItherto of Temperance and the Chief sorts of it respective to the Chief Objects of our Cupidities We are now come to a new Lesson FORTITUDE which we called the other part of Honesty in respect that the use of it is against Fear and all its Causes and that those who behave themselves in any Difficulty or Dangerous Enterprise as especially in War from which the Vulgar seem to have transferred the word to all Generous actions not timidly and unmanly but Couragiously and valiantly are generally said to behave themselves Honestly